Apple Mac HQ

With the release of version 2.0 of the AppleTV software today, AppleTV has become a nice addition to any digital living room. The ability to rent and purchase movies straight from the device and the elimination of the need for a computer have gone a long way to making the AppleTV a more desirable product. I took the time tonight to upgrade my AppleTV and installing the new software was a breeze. Here are the steps to installing the new software:

1) I’m not sure that it matters, but I made sure that iTunes on my MBP, the AppleTV syncing machine, was closed. I didn’t want the software update and a sync to be going on at the same time.
2) Go into the Settings menu and choose Update Software
3) Your AppleTV will check to see if a new software version is available. The previous version is 1.1 while the new version is 2.0.
4) Once it finds that a new version is available, it will ask if you want to download it now or later. Choose Download Now.
5) Downloading the software on my 802.11n network took about 5 minutes.
6) Once the download is finished, it will ask if you want to update the software now or later. Choose Update Now.
7) You’ll see a note that the AppleTV will reboot itself and may reboot several times during the entire update process. It also warns you not to unplug the AppleTV during the update process.
8) After rebooting several times and displaying an Apple logo with a progress bar several times, the update will finally finish and show a short AppleTV intro video. The update process takes about 10 minutes.
9) You’re done!

The entire update process took slightly longer than 15 minutes and was pretty painless. I tested downloading a podcast directly from the AppleTV and it was very easy. The search feature narrows results as you type so finding the podcast I was looking for was very quick.

With the updated AppleTV software, it looks like iTunes added a new option in the Summary tab. The screen below could have been there before but I don’t think so. I’m really digging the updated software. Now when I’m laying down to go to bed I can get content directly and find something to put me to sleep. Where are those educational podcasts again?